Posts Tagged ‘producer’
Symbiosis
Symbiosis Logo
Role: Designer / Producer / Animator
Team: Robert Chen, Peter Clain, Yaw Etse, Chelsea Howe, Joyce Lee, Kevin Locke, Caitie McCaffrey, Hao Nguyen, Christopher Ra, Melissa Sung, Gordon Szebenyi, Matthew Whaley.
Website: http://symbiosis.manojalpa.net
Dev Summary: An incomplete PC game created in XNA in Fall 2007.
Concept: Symbiosis is a two person networked game about the relationship between two dissimilar but dependent creatures. The players, one as a human, one as a beast, have no idea who the other is, cannot text, talk, or communicate in any way except through the actions and gestures of their avatars. Each character has its own skill set, but neither can survive long without the aid of the other. The beast requires the human’s help to open doors and gates; the human relies on the horns of the beast to ward off attackers, and the speed of the beast to outrun that which can’t be defeated by force. Part puzzle, part adventure, and part something entirely new, Symbiosis strives to give players a unique experience unmatched by any single or multiplayer game on the market.
Why?: Without the stresses and deadlines of a company, our game design team has the ability to explore innovative and experimental gameplay. The idea of cooperative gaming is familiar, but never forces the players as deeply into their characters as Symbiosis. As naturally as an ordinary human can’t understand the growls, neighs, or barks of an animal, and visa vie, the two players are unable to communicate through the spoken or written word, and instead must rely on their actions and a limited set of gestures to convey intentions, commands, or emotions. This restricted communication can lead to emergent pseudo-languages between partners using their gestures and motions, as well as a deeper sense of reliance and co-dependency.
Design Notes: Our team strives to expand common perceptions of what a game is and how it ought to be played. Not only through restricted communication and partner-oriented challenges and puzzles, but through the nature of the player’s goals as well. Toying with archetypal win conditions and experimenting with artistic styling in-world have set the gaming experience apart from classic RPG, adventure, and puzzle games.
Music Monsters
Concept art for Zyk training
Role: Producer / Designer / Musician
Team: Sascha Adler, Nate Burba, Robert Chen, Chelsea Howe, Ben Humberston, Kevin Locke, Melissa Sung, Gordon Szebenyi
Site: http://musicmonsters.manojalpa.net
Dev Summary: A complete PC game created in XNA over four months in Spring 2007.
Concept: Music Monsters examines transliterating between known aesthetic languages (music) and budding ones (interactive mechanics). Based on the idea that MIDI data (information on the frequency, duration, and amplitude of a note) can be applied to many other functions, Music Monsters explores the connection between the musical world of intervals, pitches, key, and scales and the physical world of size, strength, attack power, and ferocity, just to name a few. Play 4 measures of music to a young monster and watch it evolve based on the properties of the sound, then take your monster into over 20 levels based on its unique traits.
Tipoli
Mint and Periwinkle, bound and broken by love.
Role: Producer / Musician / Designer
Team: Richard Hough, Chelsea Howe, Michael Molinari
Website: http://playtipoli.com
Community: @ Playhaven.com
Trailer: @ youtube.com
Released: 4 December 2009
Company: Proper Walrus, LLC.
Publisher: Divide by Zero Games, Inc.
Dev Summary: A complete iPhone game created with Unity3D over six months in 2009
Concept: Mint is sticky, Periwinkle is bouncy. With just one button, you can swap the constantly revolving pair and send them soaring through over sixty unique, physics-based levels. Experience their wordless tale of the trials and tribulations of love, helping them survive the only way they can: Together.
Notes: This Elder Geek interview talks in depth about my personal philosophy on Tipoli and its inclusion of minimal I/O systems, minimal narrative, and other ‘enchantment’-based interactivity applications.
Reviews: In addition to being Featured by Apple under “New & Noteworthy” 2-8 February 2010 and “What’s Hot?” 9-15 February 2010, Tipoli has received many reviews from a variety of publications. Don’t forget to check the iTunes store reviews as well!
- App-sized (30 January 2010) – Five stars! “Extremely affordable, unique and elegant, Tipoli is a great example of the hidden gems among indie games. Add to that a fuzzy feeling for a pair of lovers whose story is engaging and poignant makes this game a compelling buy.”
- App.itize.us (21 January 2010) – Appitizeus is “a painstakingly curated presentation of the best produced and designed iPhone applications that are available for download via the App Store.” They featured Tipoli and said: “A sun and a moon roll and tumble through the stylized landscape. Very moody illustrated love story that reminds me of a picasso oil.”
- App Spy (January 2010) – 4: Good “For fans of simple physics games, Tipoli is definitely worth a look at. The game starts off deceptively simple to get players used to the game mechanics but the difficulty soon elevates and things become a lot more complex. So if you’re looking for a simple and enjoyable game to play, then Tipoli is a solid choice.”
- Pocket Gamer (10 January 2010) – 6: Above Average “Tipoli is an original concept for a puzzler, though it isn’t entirely successful, let down ever-so-slightly by levels that are more a chore than charming”
- Portable Gamer (January 2010) – “Tipoli is available for the iPhone and iPod Touch. At $0.99 it’s a great little game. And if you don’t conquer it right away, trust me. Just give it some time.”
- Sioux Falls Video Game News Examiner (28 December 2009) – “I found myself loving the tranquil music, oil-painting art style and the overly cutesy, yet poignant, portrayal of love. There is plenty to love about Tipoli from the complex levels to the friendly price. This game is a bargain on the iTunes App Store for what you get out of it. “
- Nine Over Ten (27 December 2009) – “Sometimes, having an unique gameplay mechanic doesn’t automatically translate into having a great game.”
- MacMost (23 December 2009) – “You control two little guys one of whom is stuck to the surface and the other who is continuously bouncing. All you do is touch to switch them. Very very simple, yet also very interesting. Give it a try.”
- Slapp-App (19 December 2009) – 5/5! “Tipoli will get you hooked, no doubt about it. This one-button physics platformer will have you going back for more and more. The challenging and diverse level design, vibrant hand drawn visuals, and cute love story all make this game a sure pick.”
- Elder-Geek (11 December 2009) – Worth Buying! “What do you get when you cross zen-like simplicity with challenging mechanics? You get a really addictive and entertaining brew that is Tipoli.”
- Fall Damage (6 December 2009) – “If you are craving something indubitably addictive and you just happen to have an iPhone at your disposal than there is truly no reason not to go and get yourself a copy of Tipoli.”
Influence
Influence has 30 different id types.
Role: Producer / Musician / Designer
Team: Seth Batty, Melissa Fuss, Benjamin Kalb, Chelsea Howe, Jay O’Leary, Shushan Xu
Website: http://playinfluence.com
Company: ActionXL
Dev Summary: A complete PC game created with XNA over six months from Fall 2009 – Spring 2010
Concept: A single voice can change the world in this abstract, meditative real time strategy experience. Guide a lone id carrying your song through the bleak, sidling alongside neutral ids until they flash to your color and carry your melody in increasing numbers. Gain consensus against all odds, turning silence in symphony.
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Mobile Demos
Five Mobile Motion Demos for G1
As accelerometers became standard phone accessories, ActionXL created motion demos for the Android platform. All demos were designed summer and fall of 2009.
Cosmic Trails: A fun, music-driven arcade style game where players tilt to control a spiky character. The player must strike the head of the geometric comets and avoid the tails.
Rubble Sort: Tilt the phone to move a series of buckets. Catch falling rubble in the appropriately colored bin.
Zig-Zag: Keep the line between the two spheres as it zooms ever faster toward the horizon.
Cluster: A classic Shoot’em in a 360* world you can explore by tilting the phone left or right.
Pants on the Ground: A quick 2-day experiment to see how many downloads we could get by piggy-backing on a pop phenomenon. Pants on the Ground had almost 1,000 within three days of its release.
Bubble Level: A simple accelerometer based application for “straightening picture frames, setting shelves, and cheating on your golf putts.”
Restibo
Circles and squares on monochrome
Role: Producer / Designer / Artist
Team: Ankur Agarwal, Justin Chan, Chelsea Howe, Wan Loh, Rajiv Puvvada, Ara Yessayan
Download: http://restibo.manojalpa.net
Dev Summary: A complete PC game created in XNA over four months in Spring 2009.
Concept: Alone in a world of circles and squares, Restibo seeks out the seven keys needed to unlock the dark planet core. Scattered amongst the hanging blocks are Voids, floating circles that nullify gravity and contain items like feathers, springs, spikes, claws, and bubbles. These items help Restibo advance through the layers of the atmosphere, flinging from one block to the next to reach larger and more intricate Voids.
Atomik
You are now ready to enter the visualization
Role: Designer / Producer / 3D Modeler
Team: Chelsea Howe, Raivo Lindemann, Hao Nguyen, Ian Sholtys, Shu Song
Website: http://atomik.manojalpa.net
Dev Summary: A complete PC game created with XNA over 4 months in Spring 2009
Concept: Atomik, loosely based on string theory, places the user in a world with seven color-coded parallel dimensions. The user is in one dimension, and the other six correspond to the sides of a cube around it. Each dimension has a static amount of energy that can be collected, harnessed, and consumed by the user. A ball of energy at the center of each dimension represents its vitality. Molecules grow in complexity and difficulty, and an ultimate molecule waits in the center for powerful challengers.
Universe
Role: Designer / Programmer / Artist
Team: Sarah Brown, Chelsea Howe
Download: http://universe.manojalpa.net
Dev Summary: A complete PC, Mac, & Linux game created with Processing over one month in Spring 2009
Concept: Use the arrow keys to navigate planets, leap into space, or land on colorful moons of unique timbre. Stars represent musical notes to collect and add to your sequencer, which appears at the bottom of the screen. At the top of the screen, the current pan is shown for each timbre, which can be adjusted by landing on respective planets. If a certain timbre’s sequence is going poorly, land on a black hole to start erasing the notes in the current timbre. Lost? Use Spacebar to access the minimap.
Comet
Comet
Role: Producer / Designer / 3D Modeler
Team: Don Holden, Chelsea Howe, Ben Humberston, Joyce Lee, Matt Whaley
Download: http://comet.manojalpa.net
Dev Summary: A complete PC game created with XNA over four months in Fall 2008
Concept: 2D Arcade “sphere shooter” balances life, offense, and defense – all controlled by the same resource. A technological menace has infested the universe. Mechanical spores, connected by an advanced neural network, travel from planet to planet absorbing and destroying crystal resources with their fog of parasitic nanoparticles. A single galaxy remains resilient, the home of a lone defender manifested from the cosmic plasma. Coma, a sentient comet guarded and fueled by the life force of the galaxy, must travel out across the branching arms of the spiral, eliminating the spores and restoring the crystals without being destroyed the toxic fog.
Motion Demos
While working at actionXL I created a series of small game ‘demos’ that showed off the various uses of their PC motion controller (tilt, direction action, indirect action or gesture). All games are available to download at www.actionxl.com but require an actionXL wired motion controller to play.
Stucker: In Stucker, players use a ‘lasso’ motion to swing a sticky, elastic alien up into the air. Stucker tries to find flower petals as he climbs to ever higher heights, gaining stats boosts and a greater appreciation for earth’s natural beauty.
Burst or Bust: Valius Coron owns a hot air balloon, and attached to that air balloon is a three story tall wooden stake he uses to pop monstrous, rabid balloon monsters that are threatening to take over the city. Tilt to move Valius’ balloon and then flick the controller down to ‘pop’ the monsters before they develop mouths and consume you.
Factory: There’s no easy win when you have to sort mail. Use the motion controller to move the vertical and horizontal treadmills that separate the packages from the trash.
Breakout: Classic game with a motion twist. Use the controller to move your paddle across the screen.